Sgarbi denies slamming Italy's foreign museum chiefs

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 21 - Culture Undersecretary, art critic and polemicist Vittorio Sgarbi on Monday denied slamming Italy's foreign-born museum chiefs saying he had been joking when he told an arts event in Viareggio Sunday night that they would "leave no trace".
    Many of Italy's top museums, including the Uffizi in Florence, are run by foreign art administrators.
    "With respect to some of my playful and, I dare to assume, witty expressions, prompted by (journalist and host) Stefano Zurlo, I am beginning to realise that one can no longer joke, or perhaps even talk," said the flamboyant figure, one of Italy's top art critics and an intellectual gadfly.
    "I did not give report cards to anyone. I made jokes: full stop.
    "And I want to reiterate, in the substance of their work, all my consideration for the 'foreign' directors of some great Italian museums, such as the Uffizi, Capodimonte, Brera". (ANSA).